Tell me,

I am playing 3 or 4 tables of No Limit.

After I win ( over the course of the 4) not on EACH table a buy in, or a bit more.

I become nervous and itching to leave. I still believe I can play good, I do not play more/less than I should. BUT, I have had experiences of "Coolers" ending sessions I have played.

I will win a buy in over the course of close to an hour when.

SET over SET or Full Hose v.s. RIver Quads.. etc..


Is it better to leave after a SET POINT.

Or play until one begins to Mentaly fatigue?

Thank you.

Also, If I win a big hand in my first few hands, I leave and buy in to another table. I think this is not proper etiquette in Real Life, but Online is it fine?

Thank you

There is the popular saying: "Quit while you are ahead".
But in fact you should quit then you are no longer playing your best game or you cant beat the game.

The quick 2+2 answer is you keep playing while you are playing you 'A' game.

My personal answer is a little more complex.

First, look at all your sessions and profile them. THere will usually be a point where you start to decline... Try to figure that out and then set that as your limit.

For me, live I can play 12hrs, but after 12hrs my results are really really bad, so I have a 12hr limit. For online, I can only play for 2hr shifts (up from 1hr shifts a month ago) and starting in March i'm going to increase to 3hr shifts.

You can also break your question into components, mental, physical, emotional.

When you start to get mentally tired, stop.

When you start to get physically tired, stop

When you start to get vaginitis or scared money syndrome, stop

A good bankroll rule to follow is to stop whenever a certain percentage of your bankroll is on the table.

Chris Ferguson advocates that whenever 10% of your bankroll is on the table, you should just stop.

I think that is a little conservative and I personally stop whenever I hit 20% of my BR and or 10 buy-ins (whichever comes first). That is my personal limit/rule.

A few weeks ago, I sat down at 2/5NL, bought in for $400, and made over $3.5K in an hour and a half. It was a super sick heater. I usually play 12hr sessions but in this case, I had to follow my rules and cash out.

My friends are all like, "How could you leave that table!!!" along with all the "Leaving that table is like burning money!!!"

Whatever. IMO, you are never wrong for cashing out ahead. One in the hand is worth two in the bush....

Basically, IMO being a long term winning poker player is more than just winning money. Big freaking deal. It is about being disciplined and following your rules.

If you can't follow rules, then you have no chance of being a long term winning player.

And i've found that my 20% BR and or 10 buy-in criteria is a great rule.

Incidentally, I have a 3 buy-in stop loss. I only take 3 buy-ins to the casino, once its gone, i'm done for the day.

Lastly,

one of the best habits you can acquire is the habit of cashing out. I find that this is something most players are just unable to do.

Every single day, I see players win a decent amount and just stay too long and give it all back...

I leave when my wife starts nagging at me. But honestly, try not to look at your cashier as much and just focus on good playing and smart decisions. Lately I have not been looking at cashier during session only at the end. Ofcourse I know if Im up or down but I dont know exactly how much. This has helped me be not so results orientated and just play poker.

The best time to stop is usually somewhere between these times

I like the 3-buyin loss limit set on oneself, personally I do the same when playing live games. What I need to work on is the cashing out when ahead part, though sometimes I think MAYBE it'll be good to cash out once you got lucky and breakeven after being stuck a lot for most of the session.

IMO it's not best (most of the time) to "Quit while you are ahead", much of the time you're likely leaving money on the table, only leave if you feel you aren't capable of playing your best. Why quit when your winning? You might have an edge on the other players, the other players may be tilting or not playing their A game atm.

Poker is one long life session If you have an edge at a table (for whatever reason) you might as well take advantage of it, you may play the same table the next day playing the same way you did when winning with the same players and find you don't do as well because they are playing better, not on tilt, brought their A game, ect.

Scared money..It's obv u need to move down in limits... And listen to prev posts

I've been doing this lately and it's helped me immensely.

I used to have a spreadsheet where I'd updated EVERYTHING, the time I joined/left a table, amount won or lost... Without noticing, I was focusing constantly on my roll. Instead of just playing poker, I'd always be thinking of my play in terms of my roll.

Now I just let HEM earn it's money. I don't piss around with any spreadsheet, just let that do the work and also do an auto-rebuy if I fall below 90% of my chips, so a bit loss won't be evident for long.

I feel like everyones different in this category. I can very rarely play full focused for more than 45mins. So I will sit out on the tables, take a quick break and regroup. Then go back. Short "recharge" sessions work for me. If you are getting itchy about losing, just stand up from all the tables and take the dog for a 10minute walk, or do some pushups, then head back to the tables.

It is a personal thing. Everyone has different points when they don't feel comfortable. For example Player A might be perfectly comfortable playing 500bb deep and doesn't get affect by a beat, but Player B may play scared because he's sitting on 200bb and go nuts after even the slightest outdraw. You need to find your threshold and be honest with yourself and if something is causing you not to play well, then quit.

just quit when you know you're not playing well. Say for example you're new and you are up 2 buy ins, if you start getting worried about losing those 2 buy ins because you will then be down for the day, I recommend stopping because at that pint you're not playing optimal.

Wow I have to congratulate Gibet for not making a thread on 'rigged'/RNGs/etc and also no use of ACE ACE